[Elecraft] Tracking Elecraft Feature Requests

[Dauer, Edward]

I agree fully with Don and Dave (messages below) and others who have made similar points.  To me it’s very simple:  We are customers, not shareholders.

There are features I wish their products had, and I have had no hesitation to mention them on this reflector.  Perhaps uniquely among producers of the type, as I understand it Elecraft monitors these posts.  If an idea has merit, acquires some me-toos, and would work within the financial and technical framework of the company and its processes, I have confidence it will be considered.  But I do not believe the company owes me even so much as an acknowledgment.   No more than I owe them an explanation about why I haven’t yet bought a KX2.  Elecraft is a very good amateur radio equipment maker.  I am a happy repeat customer.  So long as I like their gear and their service, I’ll keep buying it.  If it were a publicly listed company I might very well buy stock in it.  But it isn’t, and I haven’t.  

Ted, KN1CBR

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    Message: 8
    Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2017 20:14:44 -0500
    From: Don Wilhelm <donwilh at embarqmail.com>
    To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
    Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Tracking Elecraft Feature Requests
    Message-ID: <8c06109e-9e67-081c-ca5d-838185010de6 at embarqmail.com>
    Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed
    
    I agree with Kevin's "Why"
    Tell me of another amateur radio manufacturer who maintains such a list. 
      This is *not* open source programming.
    If such a list exists for any other amateur radio manufacturer, they 
    would come out with an "improved" new radio (Mark VI) version and if you 
    wanted the "upgrade" you would have to buy the new radio.
    
    With Elecraft, you get those "upgrades" at no cost, just download the 
    firmware. You knew (or should have known) the capabilities of the radio 
    when you bought it - you did review the specializations and features 
    before you purchased it, did you not?
    
    I don't think we need to have visibility into the Elecraft engineering 
    resources, and prioritization of requests for added functions.
    
    Those at Elecraft *do* listen and often respond to such customer 
    requests, but the prioritization of those requests must be on Elecraft's 
    terms for reasons of availability of engineering resources and the sales 
    benefit of those changes.
    
    Bug reports will get a different response than those requests for 
    changed operation.  If bug reports are proven valid and repeatable, they 
    will be attended to promptly.
    
    73,
    Don W3FPR
    
    On 2/16/2017 7:54 PM, Kevin wrote:
    > Why?
    >
    >
    > On 2/14/2017 10:56 AM, Joe Stone (KF5WBO) wrote:
    >> [js] It's important that we have visibility not only into features in the
    >> pipeline, but also proposed features which have been rejected.
    >>
    
    
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    Message: 21
    Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2017 23:37:35 -0700
    From: David Gilbert <xdavid at cis-broadband.com>
    To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
    Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Fwd: Re: Tracking Elecraft Feature Requests
    Message-ID: <deb1a247-7844-7f67-83c4-628afa017172 at cis-broadband.com>
    Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
    
    
    Except that you explicitly and repeatedly whined every time you brought 
    it up that Elecraft wasn't willing to do those things, and in my opinion 
    they have zero obligation and little practical reason to do so.  If you 
    want someone to maintain such a database, do so yourself (or talk 
    somebody else into it) without getting all moralistic about it.  It 
    might be important to you, but it isn't important for Elecraft to do it 
    for you.
    
    Dave   AB7E